Slap Me Once Slap Me Twice
by beesnbears
Summary: Ever wonder what Maddie and David were thinking after she slapped him in "The Man Who Cried Wife"?


**Disclaimer: The intense arguments between David and Maddie in "The Man Who Cried Wife" have always been intriguing to me. This little scene is merely a way of speculating as to what might have been Maddie and David's thoughts after the famous slap scene. **

**Well, this famous slap scene…we know what they were thinking after that other one!**

**Jen...you're the best than all the rest!**

**Slap Me Once…Slap Me Twice**

The sting lasted as long as the elevator took to reach the lobby floor.

_Damn, for someone who seemed to be repulsed by Bower's act of passion, she sure packed a passion- filled punch. He could still see the fury in her eyes, the rush of blood to her cheeks_.

_Jesus Christ, her beauty at that moment…it radiated enough heat to toast him. And the sound of her incensed words… he'd never seen her so angry._

_What he said to her probably sounded mean, but he still meant it. Well… part of it anyway._

_She wasn't really full of crap all of the time. He knew her heart was in there somewhere. Had it not been for the way she spit fire he might have grabbed her and kissed her senseless just to make her shut up…show her a little something about spontaneity. _

_If she ever slapped him again he just might have to try it. _

_But good gosh, the lady always played by the book. Or her book, anyway. He really hadn't been surprised that she didn't like the unceremonious romance that had so quickly claimed MacGillicuddy's freedom. Spontaneity and Vegas weddings were obviously out of the question. Well…the Bower case was more about a wife's unfaithfulness and a husband's jealous rage. Not so much a fairy-tale romance to him either._

_Not that __**he**__ would marry someone he had just met two days before, but MacGillicuddy was happy and living in the moment. That was what he had tried to tell her about always feeling obligated to weigh the pros and cons in every little decision: A person could be so busy doing that and miss out on life's greatest and most rewarding experiences. Not to mention just having some plain old unplanned, no play book kind of fun!_

_But this was different. Something else- besides him keeping the Bower case and acts of spontaneity- was making her fly over the edge. _

_Maybe it was just men in general. But it's not like she had really been with a guy for very long…that he knew of anyway. She confessed to having no serious attachments that first night in the office. Though, she didn't always share dating information except for a few times she came to work perturbed about some doofus. And it was no wonder! He_ saw _the kind she had dated. Those kinds hadn't had a chance in hell. So why would a woman like Madolyn Hayes go out with men like that plastic surgeon a year or so ago? Hadn't the lobster bib given her a clue? Maybe those types of men had made her feel safe and in control. But why did she feel the need to always be in control of every little thing?_

_He hoped it wasn't something that had happened in her past that had made her feel such disgust for Bower. A man striking a woman was repulsive to him as well. The more he thought about it the more he worried. Surely that wasn't the reason for her explosions over the afternoon and evening… Maybe he should just call the whole case off._

_Or maybe it was just **him** that made her nostrils flare…Well…at least he could draw the passion out of her… however painful it tended to be across his face._

David quickly left the Century City building. He had a stakeout to set up …with or without the blonde.

_What a piece of work_.

**..............................**

The office phone rang until whoever it was hung up. Maddie's behavior just minutes ago left her pumps frozen to the floor. The sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach finally made her feet move.

"David! Wait!" she yelled, running out of the office after him. But the elevator doors dinged and closed before she could make the turn down the hallway. David was gone.

Maddie plopped on the sofa in her office and threw a pillow over her face.

_It wasn't spontaneity she feared. It was David's definition of spontaneity that made her more than a little anxious. The crazy part…the really crazy part is that she found his brazenness for life more than a little appealing…at times._

_But really, their argument over MacGillicuddy's spontaneous wedding wasn't what had made her so angry. Bower had **struck** his wife. She had seen that type before. One of her best friends from college had quit school and married a man older than her, only to find out later that he had a short temper and a mean streak._

_David said Bower's actions were simply an act of passion driven by jealousy and that Blue Moon should continue with the case despite the despicable man's actions. And why? Because it was **a **case. One they needed and she knew it._

Maddie left her office and took the scenic route home that just happened to be in the vicinity of David's apartment.

_Sitting in her car, she stared across the street at the entrance and found herself weighing the pros and cons of swallowing her pride and admitting she had been wrong…about a lot of things. Namely, slapping him for the second time since she had known him. Well...the first time he had called her a cold-hearted bitch. Did the right-handed punch after he untied her in the kitchen that first night count? He did call her a blonde ball of fluff! And tonight? Tonight she was full of crap!_

_It wasn't the admittance part that kept her from opening the car door. It was David's voice mocking her about making lists._

She rolled her eyes, put the BMW in gear and drove home.

Standing beside her bed in silk pink pajamas, Maddie pulled the comforter off her bed, lost in the memory of the conversations she had had with David that day.

_She felt a little guilty for coming home early knowing David was out working a case. A case she was so ready to bail on simply because she couldn't get past the revulsion of Bower's act of violence. David seemed to have no problem overlooking that detail. He was being a good detective and insuring the agency didn't lose their license for abandoning a case simply because she didn't like it. She found that admirable…and responsible. He wasn't condoning Bower's behavior…he had said so himself._

Maddie grabbed the last pillow on her bed and held it to her chest.

She could still hear David's flirtiness and see his handsome smirk as he lay across the bed in the cabin that afternoon. "_Hey Goldilocks, while we're here, why don't we eat some porridge and try out the bed?"_

Smiling and rolling her eyes, she threw the pillow back on the bed and went to the closet to get some clothes. She had a stakeout to get to.

Maybe she _would_ try a little spontaneity in her life.

_Talk about a piece of work._


End file.
